Ten Years After: Commencement Date Announced For LURA Planning Enforcement Changes

My favourite early 1970s UK act? I can’t decide between Ten Years After and the Town and Country Planning Act 1971.

I wouldn’t want to bore you about the former (although maybe have their A Space In Time album on in the background) . Instead, this post is about changes to the planning enforcement provisions within what the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, amended by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 and soon to be brought into force by way of The Planning Act 2008 (Commencement No. 8) and Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2024 .

The amendments to the planning system introduced by LURA are being brought into force gradually. I summarised the first two sets of commencement regulations in my 4 February 2024 blog post Treasure Hunt: LURA Commencement Regulations & Transitional Provisions . The third set of commencement regulations were then made on 18 March 2024 and now we have this fourth set of commencement regulations. Irwin Mitchell’s Nicola Gooch is the LURA commencement order queen and summarises the latest changes here with an updated table as to when the various planning-related provisions within LURA come into force (to the extent yet known).

Various changes to the planning enforcement system come into force on 25 April 2024. The most important one of general interest is possibly the “Ten Years After” ((c) Simonicity) provision: the time period in which local planning authorities can take enforcement action against unauthorised development in England is now, in all cases, 10 years (formerly four years in the case of unauthorised operational development or the change of use of any building (which includes any part of a building) to use as a single dwelling). The ability for this period to be extended in cases of concealment is unchanged.

The transitional provisions in Regulation 5 of the commencement regulations are important:

The amended time period does not apply in the case of operational development where the operations were substantially completed before 25 April 2024. The amended time period does not apply in the case of unauthorised change of use to a dwelling where the breach occurred before 25 April 2024. The latter appears more lenient than I was expecting – it seems that if the unauthorised use started say on 24 April 2024 it would be potentially lawful if not enforced against by 24 April 2028 and that if it were to start on 25 April 2024 it would be potentially lawful if not enforced against by 25 April 2034. Some difference. For owners of buildings potentially affected by the change, it will be important to have evidence of unlawful use (or, as the case may be, of unlawful operational development having been substantially completed), on or before 24 April.

I referred earlier to the 1971 Act – which was still in force for a few years when I first started practising. Looking back at it I’m reminded that enforcement time limits have constantly fluctuated over the years (and, my word, looking back, how much longer each Act is than its predecessor – eg see how the relevant section number appear later and later in the legislation):

1947 Act, section 23   : four years’ time limit

1962 Act, section 45 : four years’ time limit

1971 Act, section 87 : before the end of 1963 in the case of unauthorised change of use (this was getting progressively more difficult to prove when I started practice) or four years in the case of operational development, breach of condition and change to a dwelling

1990 Act (as amended), section 171B : ten years in the case of unauthorised change of use or breach of condition, or four years in the case of operational development or change to a dwelling, with the power for a Magistrates Court to make a planning enforcement order extending the deadline for enforcement in the case of deliberate concealment.

Back to the latest commencement regulations…

The other main planning enforcement changes being brought into force on 25 April are:

• A local planning authority which suspects unauthorised works were carried out on a listed building will be able to issue a temporary stop notice requiring the works to stop for up to 56 days

• Temporary stop notices will be able to have effect for up to 56 days rather than 28 days

• A new power for a local planning authority in England to issue an enforcement warning notice asking the person concerned to submit a retrospective planning application within a specified period

• Reduced ability for a person to lodge an appeal against an enforcement notice issued in England on ground “(a)” – that planning permission ought to be granted or that the condition or limitation imposed on the grant of permission ought to be discharged.

• A new power for the Secretary of State to dismiss an appeal in relation to an enforcement notice or an appeal relating to a lawful development certificate in England, where it appears that the appellant is causing undue delay to the appeals process.

• Increased fines.

All of this is by way of amendments to the 1990 Act. Wouldn’t a consolidating Act be helpful, 34 years after? 

Simon Ricketts, 6 April 2024

Personal views, et cetera